Welfare State Alters SES Heritability

Heritability of different socioeconomic outcomes (education, occupation, income, wealth) shifts in a welfare‑state context: registry data from Norway show genes explain more of educational attainment and occupational prestige, while shared family environment explains more of wealth. Comparing multiple family‑ and genotype‑based methods on the same population reveals which SES measures are more genetically or environmentally driven. — If the social context (welfare policy, education system, redistribution) changes which SES components are more heritable, policy debates about equality, mobility and merit must grapple with method‑sensitive genetic evidence rather than treating 'heritability' as a single fixed fact.